Prelude to The Unsung War
by Col.Foley
Summary: An A/U version of the Prelude movie battle in the Game Ace Combat 5, featuring all of Wardog Squadron up and ready to fight.


The sun had not even come up yet, it was going to be a cool, crisp day over Sand Island

The sun had not even come up yet, it was going to be a cool, crisp day over Sand Island. In the middle of literal no where.

Blaze, all he was known as, picked up his coffee and walked over to the window, where he sipped it. In prime preparation for the mission he was about to embark upon in about three hours. He was as usual impatient, but quite eager to get flight training over with.

He could see the planes, his F-5, a trainers F-16, and Bartlett's F-4, silhouetted against the sky. Looking dark. A few crew were running over them, structural tests most likely. For a nation at peace.

He sipped gingerly from his cup. A thoughtful, but blank, expression on his face as he starred out. Another one of the flight came up next to him, Edge, Nagase, she was cute. But in the long run not his type. She was from South Osea, one of the largest cities down there. And they were, well, weird. But, he did not judge, and she seemed to be all right. If a bit timid.

Two planes then came out of the sky, doing a mock dogfight. An F-16, and another F-5, doing some extra training. Blaze recognized the Trainee as Short Stuff. A cocky kid, who was being owned one time after another in these mock trials. As he was. The F-16 got behind him perfectly, and fired, taking him down. The F-5 wriggled his tail in acceptance of the victory, and returned to base.

They landed.

"Interesting man McLesky." A voice said from behind the two aviators, the voice of Captain Bartlett.

"Sir."

"Yes, graduated two months after the end of the Belkan War, flew one sortie against a World Without Boundaries. Shot down two. Experienced fighter pilot. Now relegated to training you sorry, but promising lot."

Without a further word he walked off, not wanting to be followed.

The rest of the time went on for mere moments, Blaze continued to sip casually at his coffee. Striking a light conversation up with Nagase. But as all things, even that had to end sometime.

He climbed up into his Fighter, rushing up the ladder with his helmet on his head. He completed his pre checks, and his flight checks, made sure everything was working, while a young engineer made a complete visual survey on the outside.

He started to go over the status board and began to flick on switches, it was an amazing feeling as he felt the plane begin to shake from under him. He inched the plane forward ever so slightly. Onto the runway. He adjusted the stick ever so slightly so that it was pointing down the runway. He looked left, and right. Then above. At the thirteen or so planes that had already launched. He watched them zoom off for a few minutes, before glaring ahead. He slammed the throttle down to eighty percent. And launched the fighter down the runway. He lifted the stick, and it slowly lifted on up.

Her checked the sky around him, and gently got into a position between Edge, Chopper, and Bartlett, heartbreak 1.

"Hey Kid, you back there?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good, Chopper, Edge?"

"With you," "yeah yeah."

They piloted into the comfortable formation, Bartlett calling to the other members of the extended formation until they all called in, the other two trainers doing the same thing. Another easy day of training, almost to their last week. In fact, it was their last week. Blazed realized this with a slight smile. Time seemed to blend together.

He maneuvered his plane not unlike an expert pilot as he juked, spun, and did a series of Split-Ss as he was instructed.

Then they all settled back into a lazy formation, expecting, and indeed having the sudden urge to go home, even though that he was so comfortable in the sky.

"Alright-all aircraft RT-"

"Hold it, Heartbreak one, we have 16 contacts heading in on Radar, designate them as bogeys, no known intent, they are not answering our hails"

"Altitude and heading" Heartbreak one said into the com, sounding suddenly serious. Blaze's hairs began to stand up on the back of his neck...it could happen now.

"Hold on, we are still trying to get a reading on it...coming in..."

"Well?" Bartlett stated impatiently.

"Bearing 308...altitude 9000 feet... speed 500."

'Thank you Control."

"We recommend you turn and offer challenge"

"Already on it. Nuggets...proceed to the deck, 500 feet. Let us handle this... trainers, break left and right, fan out five miles, we will box them in."

"Copy flight lead" One of the Trainers clearly said.

The rest of the flight split off and dove for the deck.

"Flight...I need a position on those fighters." Bartlett ordered.

"Right. They are still twenty-five miles off and closing, now moving a little faster, rules of engagement. Do not fire until fired upon, or unless they get within eight miles of Sand Island, Copy?"

"Understood" Blaze could just imagine Barletts knuckles going white on the controls as he begrunginly agreed to the order.

Several minutes passed, Blaze kept on expecting the sound of Bartlett voice to come over the com and challenge the invaders...but nothing happened.

A little white box appeared on his hud, he was not even sure what it was.

"Uh...flight... we cannot see anything."

"What? Squadron leader... you have got to...you are right on top of them, they are under four miles from you." Blaze started to breathe fast.

The white boxes continued to get closer, as identification also came up one the screen. Long range SU-27s...against their F-5s...this was going to be a joke.

"Uh Flight...Blaze here...I got several contacts, Su-27s approaching me at high speed, head on."

"Say again?"

"I have got now sixteen...they just opened fire!"

Bartlett voice over powered that of the Controller as he dove for the deck along with the trainers. "Break! Break! Break! Move it Nuggets release of weapons is authorized by me!"

Blaze through his entire collective weight into his own knee as he made an evasive left hand spin moving fast out of the way. He turned as the missiles flew by him fast at roughly Mach 1.7, their white trails drawing a near perfect line in the sky. Blaze then twisted his face around and saw burning wreckage from three F-5s, and no chutes.

"Alright," he whispered after a moment of calm, he reached down to his control board and flicked the switch from 'practice' to 'war'. A beep let him no that the Aircraft was ready for instructions. He then started to look for targets, and found on easily, UN engaged and looking for targets of its own, a little to the right, and above his 620 feet.

He pulled up and moved on to the right moving at low speed, accelerating lightly to catch up.

He eased himself in behind his opponent... too easy, got tone, and fired, his two sparrows hit the enemy plane and it exploded in a giant fireball.

But then another fighter was approaching at high speed, the closure rate was intense, he was going to fire at the last second in order to get a perfect lock on. He was praying that his fighter would reload the missiles, praying quickly that he would be able to shoot back, all the while trying to climb out of the way, but the fighter stayed with him.

Then he caught out of the corner of his eye two missiles come from above and hit the enemy fighter, ripping it to shreds.

Then Bartlett's F-4 came shooting down, diving through the wreckage, pulling up at the last second as he must have been only between one hundred and two hundred feet from the ocean.

"Hey Blaze, you alright."

"Yes sir, doing just fine." He began to look for other targets in the air, and saw the number seven plane dueling with another fighter. Then again Blaze could not be sure exactly what she was doing. She was drifting left to right in what looked like a half-defensive and half-offensive move.

His ees ripped off the scene as a fighter, a Friendly F-16, exploded. Blaze knew what he needed to do. He cut power ever so slightly to give him the turning position he needed and pointed him at the flaming wreckage. He then went to full burners as the plane was pointing in the general direction that he wanted.

He only had seconds to react as he crossed the debris gently, the Flanker was bearing down on him, intending to fly through and make its own escape, but an avenging F-5 was in its way. He pressed the trigger twice sending two new missiles into the enemy plane...blowing it to shreds. He the snapped his plane in a role to the right to avoid the new flaming debris. Then he pulled up on the stick climbing hard. All the while he was looking for new targets to shoot at.

He leveled off, but still flying fast, and going evasive. But the battle was not going well. The last of the survivors were being rounded up and slaughtered like Cattle.

He found Bartlett, dueling with two enemy birds, he sent two missiles into the rear of one of the fighters destroying it. He then attempted to go evasive but the plane on his tail was not going to let him move one inch. It was all over him.

Blaze shot down to the 600 feet that the two were fighting and fell into the slot that was behind the enemy bird. "Sir, pull up right. I can get a clean shot." He said as the enemy bird danced in and out of his lock on.

"Negative... do not give me orders nugget."

"Sir, I can have a clean shot, I am barely out of position now."

"I am going to go down left, he will follow me, nail him."

Blaze's hand tensed on the control stick as he thought of ways of pulling this off. He could think of none. Bartlett went down hard, and for some reason the enemy plane followed him down almost before he began his maneuver.

Blaze knew what he had to do, by instinct he threw his stick down and around which inverted his fighter craft. He then pulled up on the stick slightly loosing altitude but staying with the enemy fighter craft. He was praying for his plane to be able to lock on. It did. He sent two missiles into it destroying the fighter.

"Control to Sand Island group...the rest are defiantly pulling back. Return to base"

The remaining fighters, Edge, Blaze, Hearbreakone, and one of the other trainers turned back to base. But the other trainer was all shot up. He was spewing whit and black smoke, as it seemed he had trouble keeping aloft.

He would crash on landing.

The rest of the group landed successfully. And the final result. Blaze got three, Bartlett got two, Edge, and the Trainer that was shot down got one each. But out of the 24 planes sent up, they were the only ones to survive.

Blaze headed for his bunk to cool down for a bit before going into a chow line to get a meal.


End file.
